Updated 12:15 a.m., Monday, October 24, 2011

Even better: You'll actually get to see one at the 2011 San Antonio Auto & Truck Show, coming up Oct. 27-30 in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center downtown.

Arguably one of the best nonexotic, factory-built performance cars ever made, the original 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 remains a legend today, and anyone lucky enough to own one probably wouldn't part with it willingly.

Now, though, Ford's own cadre of pony car enthusiasts has created another Boss 302, the limited-edition 2012 model, after slightly twisting the arms of the guys who control the money in Dearborn.

Ford calls it “a race car with a license plate,” which means it's street legal, if just barely so.

They've taken the redone 2011 Mustang GT and worked their magic on it to create the new Boss 302, with a 5.0-liter V-8 engine that cranks out 444 horsepower, up from 412 in the regular GT. There's also 380 foot-pounds of torque.

Base price is $40,310, plus $795 freight, and you'll have to order the car. These won't be sitting idle on dealer lots waiting for customers to show up.

Not only did the Ford team create a new Boss 302; they also tuned up a Laguna Seca special edition to commemorate the famous track in Monterey, Calif. That's where legendary driver Parnelli Jones (who once left me stranded in Seward, Alaska) won the 1970 Trans-Am season-opening race in a Boss 302.

The Laguna Seca edition, which was further refined for racing (including removal of the back seat), will be the model on display in the Ford display at the San Antonio auto show. For the Laguna Seca package, add $6,995 to the Boss 302's base price.

It has “increased body stiffness, a firmer chassis setup and an aerodynamics package carried over almost in its entirety from the Ford Racing Boss 302R,” Ford says.

“The decision to build a modern Boss was not entered into lightly,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's global chief of product development. “The entire team at Ford felt the time was right, and with the right ingredients, the world-class 2011 Mustang could support a successful, race-bred, worthy successor to the original Boss 302.

“For us, that meant a production Mustang that could top one of the world's best — the 2010 BMW M3 — in lap times at Laguna Seca,” he added. “We met our expectations.”

Ford said its Mustang team “developed the package to provide weekend racers with a factory track car that could be driven to the course, take the win, then driven back home again.”

Besides no rear seat, the Laguna Seca model has R-compound tires, an “aggressive front splitter for track use” and both a special rear spoiler and rear cross-car bracing to “shave seconds off track times and boost lateral acceleration to 1.03 g,” the automaker said.

I'd like to drive it down one of the runways at San Antonio International Airport, just to see if it actually would take off. It looks like it would. Top speed is officially 155 mph, but I'm sure enthusiasts who buy this car will find ways to improve on that.

“The team at Ford wanted to offer fellow Mustang enthusiasts something really special — a beautifully balanced factory-built race car that they could drive on the street,” said Mustang chief engineer David Pericak.

And it's not an aftermarket conversion. This car comes from the factory ready to rumble.

“The Boss 302 isn't something a Mustang GT owner can buy all the parts for out of a catalog or that a tuner can get by adding a chip,” Pericak said. “This is a front-to-back re-engineered Mustang with every system designed to make a good driver great, and a great driver even better.”

No automatic transmission is offered, of course. The Boss 302 comes with a short-throw, six-speed manual gearbox with a “race-inspired clutch,” Ford says.

There is a 3.73-ratio rear axle that has carbon-fiber plates in its limited-slip differential. Optional are a Torsen limited-slip differential and Recaro sport cloth bucket seats, packaged together for $1,995.

Ford also made sure the car sounds like it's in charge. It has a specially tuned air intake tube on the engine, and an exhaust system that announces the Boss is in town.

“Since the 2011 Mustang GT exhaust is already so free-flowing — it came in way under our backpressure targets — we already had excellent performance; we were able to tune the (Boss 302) exhaust system for a unique sound,” Mustang engineer Shawn Carney said. “Combined with the rush of the intake, the exhaust system really envelops the driver in V-8 sound.”

The car has four exhaust outlets — two at the rear similar to those on the regular GT model, plus two that exit on each side of the car ahead of the rear wheels. The car gets a lot of its special sound from these two, where the exhaust gases pass “through a set of metal discs that act as tuning elements,” Ford says.

“Visually subtle, the side pipes flow very little exhaust but a lot of exhaust sound, providing a sonic experience unlike any other Mustang,” the automaker said.

We won't get to hear it at the auto show, though, because the fire department requires that the batteries of all the cars be disconnected. The Boss won't be fired up on the show floor.

The car also comes with five settings for the shock absorbers, but they're not adjusted by turning a knob inside the cabin, like those found on some of today's cars. To change the settings, you have to take a screwdriver to the top of each shock, either under the hood or inside the trunk, Ford says.

The Boss comes with lightweight, 19-inch black alloy racing wheels, 9 inches in front, 9.5 inches in the rear. On them are Pirelli PZero summer tires — 255/40ZR-19 on the front and 285/35ZR-19 on the rear.

Of course, special attention was given to the brakes, as well. The car has Brembo four-piston front calipers with 14-inch vented rotors. At the rear, the standard GT brakes have been “upgraded with a Boss-specific high-performance pad compound,” the company says.

Antilock brakes are standard, along with electronic stability control and traction control, which both can be turned off when running the car on a track. There also is an intermediate sport mode that “allows drivers to push their cars hard at the track without completely disabling the safety systems,” Ford says.

Speed-sensitive electronic power steering is standard, and it has been tuned to give the driver more road feel.

Outside, Boss models have either a black, white or red roof panel the same color as the “C” stripe on each side. Available exterior colors are Competition Orange, Performance White, Kona Blue Metallic, Yellow Blaze Tri-Coat Metallic and Race Red.

There's a unique grille, along with blocked-off fog light openings, a lower front air splitter to help with underbody aerodynamics, and a rear spoiler

Inside, there are a special Alcantara suede steering wheel, cloth seats with a suedelike center insert, a dark-metallic instrument panel and a black pool-cue style shifter ball. The car also has special “Powered by Ford” doorsills.

Updated 12:15 a.m., Monday, October 24, 2011

Even better: You’ll actually get to see one at the 2011 San Antonio Auto & Truck Show, coming up Oct. 27-30 in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center downtown.

Arguably one of the best nonexotic, factory-built performance cars ever made, the original 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 remains a legend today, and anyone lucky enough to own one probably wouldn’t part with it willingly.

Now, though, Ford’s own cadre of pony car enthusiasts has created another Boss 302, the limited-edition 2012 model, after slightly twisting the arms of the guys who control the money in Dearborn.

Ford calls it “a race car with a license plate,” which means it’s street legal, if just barely so.

They’ve taken the redone 2011 Mustang GT and worked their magic on it to create the new Boss 302, with a 5.0-liter V-8 engine that cranks out 444 horsepower, up from 412 in the regular GT. There’s also 380 foot-pounds of torque.

Base price is $40,310, plus $795 freight, and you’ll have to order the car. These won’t be sitting idle on dealer lots waiting for customers to show up.

Not only did the Ford team create a new Boss 302; they also tuned up a Laguna Seca special edition to commemorate the famous track in Monterey, Calif. That’s where legendary driver Parnelli Jones (who once left me stranded in Seward, Alaska) won the 1970 Trans-Am season-opening race in a Boss 302.

The Laguna Seca edition, which was further refined for racing (including removal of the back seat), will be the model on display in the Ford display at the San Antonio auto show. For the Laguna Seca package, add $6,995 to the Boss 302′s base price.

It has “increased body stiffness, a firmer chassis setup and an aerodynamics package carried over almost in its entirety from the Ford Racing Boss 302R,” Ford says.

“The decision to build a modern Boss was not entered into lightly,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s global chief of product development. “The entire team at Ford felt the time was right, and with the right ingredients, the world-class 2011 Mustang could support a successful, race-bred, worthy successor to the original Boss 302.

“For us, that meant a production Mustang that could top one of the world’s best — the 2010 BMW M3 — in lap times at Laguna Seca,” he added. “We met our expectations.”

Ford said its Mustang team “developed the package to provide weekend racers with a factory track car that could be driven to the course, take the win, then driven back home again.”

Besides no rear seat, the Laguna Seca model has R-compound tires, an “aggressive front splitter for track use” and both a special rear spoiler and rear cross-car bracing to “shave seconds off track times and boost lateral acceleration to 1.03 g,” the automaker said.

I’d like to drive it down one of the runways at San Antonio International Airport, just to see if it actually would take off. It looks like it would. Top speed is officially 155 mph, but I’m sure enthusiasts who buy this car will find ways to improve on that.

“The team at Ford wanted to offer fellow Mustang enthusiasts something really special — a beautifully balanced factory-built race car that they could drive on the street,” said Mustang chief engineer David Pericak.

And it’s not an aftermarket conversion. This car comes from the factory ready to rumble.

“The Boss 302 isn’t something a Mustang GT owner can buy all the parts for out of a catalog or that a tuner can get by adding a chip,” Pericak said. “This is a front-to-back re-engineered Mustang with every system designed to make a good driver great, and a great driver even better.”

No automatic transmission is offered, of course. The Boss 302 comes with a short-throw, six-speed manual gearbox with a “race-inspired clutch,” Ford says.

There is a 3.73-ratio rear axle that has carbon-fiber plates in its limited-slip differential. Optional are a Torsen limited-slip differential and Recaro sport cloth bucket seats, packaged together for $1,995.

Ford also made sure the car sounds like it’s in charge. It has a specially tuned air intake tube on the engine, and an exhaust system that announces the Boss is in town.

“Since the 2011 Mustang GT exhaust is already so free-flowing — it came in way under our backpressure targets — we already had excellent performance; we were able to tune the (Boss 302) exhaust system for a unique sound,” Mustang engineer Shawn Carney said. “Combined with the rush of the intake, the exhaust system really envelops the driver in V-8 sound.”

The car has four exhaust outlets — two at the rear similar to those on the regular GT model, plus two that exit on each side of the car ahead of the rear wheels. The car gets a lot of its special sound from these two, where the exhaust gases pass “through a set of metal discs that act as tuning elements,” Ford says.

“Visually subtle, the side pipes flow very little exhaust but a lot of exhaust sound, providing a sonic experience unlike any other Mustang,” the automaker said.

We won’t get to hear it at the auto show, though, because the fire department requires that the batteries of all the cars be disconnected. The Boss won’t be fired up on the show floor.

The car also comes with five settings for the shock absorbers, but they’re not adjusted by turning a knob inside the cabin, like those found on some of today’s cars. To change the settings, you have to take a screwdriver to the top of each shock, either under the hood or inside the trunk, Ford says.

The Boss comes with lightweight, 19-inch black alloy racing wheels, 9 inches in front, 9.5 inches in the rear. On them are Pirelli PZero summer tires — 255/40ZR-19 on the front and 285/35ZR-19 on the rear.

Of course, special attention was given to the brakes, as well. The car has Brembo four-piston front calipers with 14-inch vented rotors. At the rear, the standard GT brakes have been “upgraded with a Boss-specific high-performance pad compound,” the company says.

Antilock brakes are standard, along with electronic stability control and traction control, which both can be turned off when running the car on a track. There also is an intermediate sport mode that “allows drivers to push their cars hard at the track without completely disabling the safety systems,” Ford says.

Speed-sensitive electronic power steering is standard, and it has been tuned to give the driver more road feel.

Outside, Boss models have either a black, white or red roof panel the same color as the “C” stripe on each side. Available exterior colors are Competition Orange, Performance White, Kona Blue Metallic, Yellow Blaze Tri-Coat Metallic and Race Red.

There’s a unique grille, along with blocked-off fog light openings, a lower front air splitter to help with underbody aerodynamics, and a rear spoiler

Inside, there are a special Alcantara suede steering wheel, cloth seats with a suedelike center insert, a dark-metallic instrument panel and a black pool-cue style shifter ball. The car also has special “Powered by Ford” doorsills.